


hand in hand (is the only way to land)

by shinobi93



Category: Henry IV - Shakespeare, Henry IV Part 1 - Shakespeare, The Hollow Crown (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Fluff, girl!Hotspur
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-20
Updated: 2013-08-20
Packaged: 2017-12-24 01:54:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/933779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinobi93/pseuds/shinobi93
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The condensed story of Harriet Percy, angry musician, and Kate Mortimer, who will believe in her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	hand in hand (is the only way to land)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [newredshoes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/newredshoes/gifts).



> Written for Histories Ficathon Madness, for the prompt: "I love genderswaps, or was-always-a-girl. How about if Harry Percy was always a girl? I would love this to be femslash with Kate, as explicit as you'd like, if you're in a smut-writing mood. It can also be an AU of any time you like, or hewing more to the canon period."
> 
> This was thought up and written in a few hours, so apologies for mistakes/inaccuracies. I've never tried genderswap before, so I hope it's okay.
> 
> Title comes from 'The Lovecats' by The Cure.

Nineteen eighty-four: Harriet Percy is born in an Orwellian haze, the same year as the prince who will share her nickname. She does not remember the occasion, but will be thanked for it in years to come by a girl with an affectionate smile, sitting on the grass in St James’s Park in a stolen moment between meetings and the recording of Hotspur’s first album. 

Her name is shorted to Harry within a few weeks, at her mother’s protestations that they can’t both be called Harriet, and so is her fate sealed to years of childhood teasing by kids who don’t understand what it’s like to be mocked for a boy’s name when your father wishes you were one. Harry Percy: the girl with two apparently male names and a deep anger at the world for laughing at it, at her, for not taking her seriously. 

That is, until she meets the girl who does.

Two thousand and four: Harry Percy, broke musician working her way through band troubles and a series of minimum wage jobs, channelling that anger into her music, meets Kate Mortimer, aspiring web developer. Harry has refused her parents’ help, won’t take a penny from them, because she knows she can do this. Armed with a guitar and determination, she will make people listen to her, even if her temper snaps too often, too soon.

On a cold night in November, in the grotty upstairs room of a slightly dodgy pub, Harry plays yet another disappointing gig (this time their bassist got drunk beforehand and forgot any semblance of rhythm in the process). Afterwards, stepping from behind the microphone without even putting down her guitar, a girl with long dark hair and dark eyes walks into her path and asks if she can buy Harry a drink. Harry nods and follows her, still clutching the blue guitar that she will eventually record her fame with.

Five months later, they move in together. Harry escapes from living with her bandmates, which helps their working relationship, and they get a new bassist and a new name: Hotspur, because their blood is fiery and they won’t be kicked down. Kate comes to their first gig as a new band and cheers from the side, supporting her girlfriend just as Harry supports her, nipping out of band rehearsal to bring Kate lunch at the office and putting up the shelves for her programming books even when they barely any other furniture in their little flat.

The band plays pubs and dingy basements, then moves onto clubs, still dark but this time intentionally so. Kate stumbles, loses her job due to downsizing, but finds another, a better one, and Harry always knew she would, throughout that period when they sold anything they didn’t entirely need and clung together wearing many jumpers instead of heating. Harry argues with her father when she visits home: he still doesn’t believe she can make it and is very vocal about the fact. Kate stands and watches, until Harriet Percy the first, the one who got the full name, smiles and offers her a cup of tea. She has been accepted, and Harry is happy with that, despite the arguments.

Then, it happens: Hotspur are signed by Plantagenet Records. Harry spends a full two days arguing out the contract, her and their drummer and some legal people who clearly didn’t expect such a battle. Back at home, incredulous and stressed out, she fights with Kate, then apologises profusely.

At the Plantagenet offices, she spies the owner’s son in the corridor, some indie rock poser signed to, surprise surprise, his father’s label. Worlds apart, brought together by mere coincidences. The anger is still there, rising, but she says nothing, walks on, because she cannot throw away this opportunity for a cheap shot at a guy who can buy his way out of trouble.

The album’s recorded, bought by enough people to justify its existence, and all the while Kate is there, rising up in her job and refusing to ever stop maintaining their band website. A bigger flat, dancing round to the radio whilst they both have time off to unpack and arrange their belongings, amps and recording equipment and books on coding and Kate’s mug collection, fitting together not perfectly, but well enough.

And then one night, twenty five years after that day when she entered the world, Harry is playing another gig, headlining at a pretty decent club, and tonight Kate’s there too, wearing Harry’s favourite shirt and looking as enthralled as she did that first time.

Harry is spitting out lyrics, the words that articulate her anger better than she ever could whilst speaking, when seemingly out of nowhere she spots her father, standing near the edge with a wary look on his face. She barely falters, stumbling over only a syllable or two. This is her world and her father will not take that from her. The lights blaze in her eyes and she thinks of all the people she has beaten as she sings, all her victories: the naysayers who were proved wrong as she fought her way up, Owen their old bassist who wouldn’t listen to what she had to say, her cousin Richard who she punched in the face for laughing at her.

Backstage, there’s Kate, leaning against the wall like her girlfriend being a rocker is nothing, and then there’s her dad, waiting behind Kate, with a look Harry’s not sure about on his face. She’s pumped with adrenaline, ready for an argument, so she kisses Kate and turns to him, steeling her expression.

‘You did well,’ he says, without elaboration. She nods. It is enough. She didn’t need his approval, nor his praise, but she appreciates it nonetheless. Her life does not require him, but she never wanted to cut him out, either, not if he would finally take her seriously.

Harry Percy has carved her own place in the world, and it is here, here with Kate, fighting her way past the obstacles, but never alone. They can take things seriously and they can take them laughing, but they will be together, hand in hand, throughout it all.

**Author's Note:**

> Harry's birth year was chosen as it is indeed the same year as the current Prince Harry.


End file.
